Monday, December 21, 1998

Cowboys survive for now, but what about playoffs

By Tim Cowlishaw

The Dallas Morning News

(KRT)

IRVING, Texas -- In their last Texas Stadium appearance, the Cowboys were badly overmatched by the Minnesota Vikings. That's not nearly as frightening as what took place Sunday.

The Cowboys were evenly matched with Philadelphia.

After 60 minutes, the difference in the two teams boiled down to this: The Cowboys have a fake field goal play, and the Eagles apparently don't.

Both teams scored three times from field-goal formation with Eric Bjornson's seven-yard run on the fake marking the difference in a 13-9 Dallas victory.

This means the NFL playoffs are coming to Texas Stadium in two weeks. It does not mean the Cowboys are ready for them.

"Does it look pretty right now? No, it doesn't," coach Chan Gailey said. "But we get a chance to work on things in the playoffs. There are other teams that don't get to say that."

The Cowboys won their 15th NFC East title despite being badly outgained by the Eagles, 356-248. Emmitt Smith returned to the 100-yard rushing column and yet the Cowboys managed a paltry 11 first downs.

Dallas' inability to pass the football kept Philadelphia in the hunt until the very end.

"It's frustrating, no question, especially when you have good field position as often as we did," said Troy Aikman. "We got into too many long (third) down situations, and they were bringing more people than we could block."

Aikman finished with 10 completions in 23 passes for 120 yards. Three sacks resulted in 25 yards in losses, so the net passing effort was 95 yards in 26 pass plays.

The Eagles copied the Saints' model of blitzing the Cowboys up the middle.

"Their center and the guard are the weakest points of their offensive line, and we were able to exploit that on the sacks," said Eagles tackle Steve Martin. Martin proved to be no laughing matter, blowing past center Mike Kiselak twice for sacks.

Kiselak also was cited twice for holding as he removed all doubts about his long-term future as a starting center.

If you're thinking that maybe the Cowboys' defense should be due some praise for this victory, well, you're right. They did keep the Eagles out of the end zone and managed not to crack.

It should be noted, however, that the Eagles are the league's lowest scoring team by miles. After 15 games, the Eagles have 151 points. Next lowest is San Diego at 228.

A few more words about the opponents are in order.

The Eagles are not a good road team. In fact, they haven't bothered to win a road contest since 1996. That was also the year of the Cowboys' last December victory, so something had to give Sunday.

This was only the third time in eight tries this season the Eagles stayed within seven points on the road.

The Cowboys would prefer to ignore that fact, suggesting that their recent struggles are a natural way of life in the NFL, not necessarily an indicator of a short playoff run to come.

"The fact is it's a rollercoaster every year," Aikman said. "When we were winning Super Bowls, it was like that."

On the other hand, the Cowboys have scored 33 points in three weeks. While the running game emerged from moth balls Sunday, the passing game amounted to a 41-yard pass to Michael Irvin and 27-yard throw to Hayward Clay, who surprised the Eagles along with 60,000 Cowboys fans. Aikman's other 21 passes netted 52 yards.

Aikman is spending entirely too much time on his back to be effective. But even upright, he isn't making plays at his customary level.

The Cowboys converted two of 13 third downs. That proved to be a winning total only because the Eagles picked up one of 15.

The big problem: Six third downs in which the Cowboys needed eight yards or more. They converted none of them.

Still, the Cowboys survived. And now they advance.

"We accomplished one goal because we ran the ball better today," Gailey said. "But we're going to have to get it all going in the playoffs."

The Cowboys' first playoff opponent could be a team Dallas swept during the season, either Arizona or the Giants. Tampa Bay also remains alive.

None of those three have records that would rank them as formidable, yet all three are vastly superior to the team that pushed the Cowboys to the wall Sunday.

"We know nobody is going to give us credit for winning the East," fullback Daryl Johnston said. "And nobody is expecting us to do anything in the playoffs. We realize that all we have is a belief in ourselves."

Not to mention an ability to score in a variety of ways from field-goal formation.

(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

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